This is a copy of my journal over at GGL.com :
http://ggl.com/news.php?NewsId=3220
Covlan Quake 4 LAN, Coventry, UK. 4th June 2006
Day 3 : The Grand Finals Day
If the previous day had given us a few shocks, today would provide memories that might well last a lifetime. No, I am not being overly dramatic, there really were at least two matches that will live with everyone who watched, listened in and will view the demos in the days ahead.
Lets at least start off in chronological order however. Garpy and forever resumed their semi final lower bracket match (much like a delayed tennis game it seemed) first thing this morning and despite an overtime win in the first map (which was actually the second map, as Garpy had one the first map last night), forever was not able to break Garpy down in the 3rd and final deciding map. In the other half of the lower bracket, TooGoood went down to his good friend fooki, but not without an incredible map win on Monsoon by 17 frags to one. TooGoood even had the cheek to ask fooki if it was “GG?” with 5 minutes still remaining!, fooki agreed and then won the decider.
The final of the lower bracket was a straightforward 2 map win for fooki, both times winning by around 5 frags, with Garpy giving him a tough game on both maps. Meanwhile, winz and OoZe still had to play in the upper bracket final, although it would have to wait a while for the TDM was approaching its climax.
After a group stage yesterday, the TDM cup moved to the semi final stage, a straight forward single elimination best of three. Dignitas were a player down however as one of their players had fallen ill over night, fortunately for them, there was a certain fnatic player called PURRI who just happened to be free for a TDM game or two and oh how it seemed to change the teams fortunes. Their opponents were Against All Authority, the French TDM power house team also joined by highly rated dueller forever, started as tournament favourites and massive favourites to beat dignitas. This match would be one of several in the day that just didn’t follow the form book or the sanity book either. A man down, a new player drafted in at the last moment who had never played with these players, nor they with him and incredibly they pulled off one of the biggest surprised in TDM history with an incredible win to take their place in the final against fellow UK rivals, 4Kings.
Whilst the results had been amazing, the actual games were anything less to commentate on for myself and TosspoT, so with only one further game to cover, we were looking forward to getting it out of the way and concentrating on the 1v1 once again. How wrong we could be would only be discovered in the second map of the grand final. Dignitas had gone down by over 70 frags on Over The Edge yesterday and obviously did not want to have to face the might of 4Kings on the same map again, but the match would start on their choice of Better Than Nothing. This proved to be a clever tactical choice and dignitas ran out winners by 25 frags, never headed throughout the 20 minute game. Predictably, 4Kings picked their strongest map, and possibly dignitas’ worst; once again it would be torture for them on Over The Edge.
Or would it? As expected and according to plan, 4Kings took the early lead, extended it out to 23 or 24 frags within a few minutes and it seemed another huge win was on the cards. With 10 minutes gone however, dignitas had found their feet and the frag difference was little different, hovering around 25 frags. As we moved into the last 2 minutes, the gap was still much the same and it seemed that although dignitas were not heading for the kind of defeat they suffered in the group stages, they would at least have to face the prospect of a 3rd and deciding map. It was now that dignitas started to chip away at the lead, first with PURRI grabbing and important quad run, racking up 5 or 6 kills and then making sure they pressured the spawns. Second by second they nibbled away at the 4Kings lead and with a minute to go, the frag lead was down to around 10. Surely though, this could not be the mother of all comebacks?
Again, dignitas just would not lie down despite some good defence from 4Kings and a whole lot of running (aka trying not to get shot), it was dignitas who were finishing strong. 10 seconds to go and the frag gap melted, truly by the second so that as we approached the final 3 seconds, it was a tied game and in the confusion and excitement they somehow managed to both get one more kill a piece and send the game to overtime. Overtime situations are pretty rare in TDM it has to be said, but not that unusual and these two teams continued on for a further 5 minutes, exchanging the lead, dignitas pulling a few frags ahead, only to be pulled back once again with 4Kings then re-taking it for a few seconds. We again approached the last 10 seconds and yet again, despite a 6 frag lead, dignitas somehow pulled out all the stops to level the score right on the buzzer and send it into yet another over time!!!
This was sensational and not just from dignitas, several times it looked as if 4Kings were going to lose and with this being the second map, it would have meant dignitas winning the entire tournament. It took nerves of steel during the second set of overtime and finally after 30 dramatic minutes, 4Kings finally sealed victory and that meant we would have a 3rd and final deciding map. The third map was taken by 4Kings to claim the TDM cup here at Covlan, but dignitas can be exceptionally proud of the way they played and conducted themselves throughout the entire tournament. Thrashed on Day one by the same clan they took to double overtime on the same map a day later in a match and a map that will be remembered for a long time, and more than likely pass right into Quake folklore.
Time to catch up on the 1v1 tournament and despite winning the upper bracket final, winz did not escape further controversy in doing so. With a closely fought and highly tactical battle played out on map 1 (Phrantic), winz decided that as he was rather hungry, he would go and buy a burger at the end of map 1 and promptly walked right past our commentary area and past the stunned faces of the watching crowd. It is still unclear if he asked and agreed this with an admin and OoZe insists that he was NOT asked and was left fuming inside the server awaiting his opponents return for some ten minutes. Upon the Frenchman’s re-appearance, the Swede decided that he too would play some mind games and promptly also left to get some food. Farcical is probably a little too strong for the situation, but it wasn’t far off.
Upon resumption of the match, winz claimed the game and went through the grand final, but his time wasting might well have played a part in his downfall come the Grand Final, but more of that a bit later as we still had to find an opponent for him.
By his own admission, fooki had not played very well on day 1, yet he was now fired up and ready on finals day with an impressive win over Garpy and he now faced his fellow countryman OoZe. Once again it was a tactical battle, but fooki was never really in danger, although the RAW gaming player did have his chances. With the 2/3 final dispensed with, fooki would get his chance at revenge on winz, who had knocked him down to the lower bracket yesterday. This time however, he would need every ounce of mental strength to overcome his opponent as coming from the lower bracket he would need to win, not one, but two best of three sets to take the crown at Covlan.
With all the delays, the excitement in the TDM final and the controversy around the infamous “winz burger” incident, the Frenchman was now in danger of missing his plane back to France which left in under 2 hours from the start of the grand final. He told everyone that it was ok however as he was sure he could win the match in 2 maps and get to the airport in time.
After the first set of best of three and a 2-0 map defeat however, this looked increasingly unlikely and he is fortunate that the organiser (Reason Gaming) agreed to pay for him to book a later flight home, so he could finish the Grand final, which was now heading into the second set of best of three.
The fact that fooki had won two clear maps in the first set, gave him tremendous confidence and the mental battle was already won, but now he would have to do it all again. Yet again, winz stuck to his map pick of Phrantic and for the third time in two days it was yet another close affair, the Swede just shading it to take a 1-0 map lead. The second map, fooki’s choice, would be Monsoon and this time, winz was ready for him. An early 5-1 lead seemed to indicate he had got his game back after being rocked in the 3 previous maps of this final. He extended that lead out to 11-2 and it seemed that the curse of Monsoon (early good starts are rarely overcome) had struck fooki once more after his thrashing from TooGoood earlier in the day. With 5 minutes remaining however, he found another gear and after a good couple of conversion kills, he was right back in it, narrowing the gap down to 6 frags. Still winz battled when it seemed pointless to do so and again and again he would lose a couple of quick frags and then reply with one of his own. With 1 minute remaining fooki had closed the gap to within 3 and he also had control and the weaponry to reduce it still further.
Another frag and another conversion kill narrowed it to 1 frag with 20 seconds left and with winz now trying to stay out of the way, fooki could smell blood and hunted him like a dog. Two quick kills and he would have the lead and despite leading the entire map for almost 15 minutes, winz was now staring down the barrel of defeat with 5 seconds remaining. The tables now turned, with fooki hurt and wounded from their last battle trying to stay out of the way and winz now hunting for the frag to tie the game. With just a second remaining, he got a superb Lighting Gun frag and we went into overtime, this time however and being 1v1 rather than TDM, it would be for just 2 minutes.
Neither player had control of the map at this point and they spent the next minute or so playing cat and mouse around the map without any real battles. Finally the fragging re-commenced but again neither player could break the deadlock in terms of the score and we headed to yet another period of overtime and a further 2 minutes of tactical chess-like play.
This second period of overtime produced some nail biting from the crowd, who were now thrilled by the excitement of the finals in front of the big screen. Fooki would take the lead by 1 and winz would then return a frag to the scoreboard for himself and with 10 seconds remaining, neither player would commit to the battle and we went into our third set of overtime. Amazing.
Whether it was fatigue, mental brain drain or just sheer luck, no one will really know, but in the third set of overtime, winz lost his footing and with it any hope of sending this match to a deciding map. The Swede gratefully accepted a couple of easy conversion kills and racked up a 4 frag lead which he would never lose and was crowned CovLAN Quake 4 champion after what had been a breathtaking final in more ways than one. It is also worthy to note, he did this by taking 4 straight maps in the grand final, having come from the lower bracket which was an incredible feat.
I have been fortunate enough to attend some of the greatest tournaments across the world from WCG to ESWC and Quakecon, but never have I experienced such an exciting set of matches, controversy and stunning skill from such a high class field of players in the space of 2 days. The fact that this tournament came in my own proverbial backyard also says a lot, for in the last few years, tournaments in the UK have left a lot to be desired. Here though, was a great example of how to run a small one game event and invite the right players at the right time with beautiful execution and of course, the fabulous quality and excitement of the games helped too.
I am looking forward to the big tournaments of the summer with renewed hope and optimism, because if this is just the start, then we could well be in for some mouth watering matches over the next 6 weeks or so. Who needs the sun and the sand when quake 4 can be this exciting?
I don’t think I will be getting a suntan this year somehow…
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